but now is Christ risen from the dead

 

Prayer

In Matthew 6:9-12 Jesus taught His disciples to pray: "Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." (From the King James Version - 1611)

As I prepared this section on prayer I looked through and read parts of at least 15 books on prayer. Here is a partial list of the subjects covered: 1) What is prayer? 2) How does one pray? 3) Does God hear the prayer of an unbeliever? 4) What elements should prayer contain? 5) What is the purpose of prayer? 6) Why should we pray? 7) To whom should we pray? 8) How does God answer prayer? 9) Should one fast when he prays? 10) Does prayer change things? 11) What role does the Holy Spirit play in prayer? 12) In what position should we pray? 13) Does God answer prayer? 14) How do we know that God has answered our prayer? 15) What are the pre-requisites for getting that for which we pray?

I have always been puzzled by what people do in the name of prayer, especially in the light of our commitment to doing Bible things in Bible ways. For example we have: 1) "prayer breakfasts" - which seem to me to be occasions where more time is spend eating and lecturing than to praying; 2) Prayer clinics - the clinics I have seen advertised seem to call more attention to the speakers than to praying; 3) Prayer chains - which are intend to be networks of prayer but often turn out to be the means of passing on stories that get progressively confused.

And then there are those who seem to think that once they pray about an issue then whatever they do, not only meets with God's approval, but must be the will of God. They are sort of like the overweight fellow who was trying to lose weight so he changed the route he took to work so he would not pass by his favorite bakery. One morning, however, he came to work carrying a big coffee cake. He explained to the others at the office that this was God's will. He said he accidentally had taken the wrong route to work and that finding himself at the bakery began to pray. He prayed that if it was God's will for him to stop and buy a coffee cake that he would find a parking space right in front of the bakery. And sure enough, he said, on his seventh time around the block, there was a parking place right in front of the bakery!

There are others who want God to do for them what they could and should do for themselves. A priest was playing golf with one of the members of his church and the fellow noticed that the priest was making every putt. He also noticed that the priest "crossed" himself first. So he asked the priest, "What is it you are praying for? And the priest replied, "I pray that God will help me make the putt." So the next hole the layman got ready to putt but first he "crossed" himself. When he hit the ball it missed the cup by about 2 feet. He complained that God was not answering his prayer. But the priest replied, "You still have to keep your eye on the ball."

I am going to discuss the answers to six questions about prayer: 1) What is prayer? 2) What motivates a person to pray? 3. What topics should be included in our prayers? 4) What are the assumptions we make about God before we pray? 5. Does God answer prayer? 6) How can we increase the possibility of getting that for which we pray?

1. WHAT IS PRAYER?

The Bible does not give us a simple definition of the word "prayer" but it sure does give us many examples of prayer. Definitions of prayer go from very brief and simple to lengthy and complicated. Perhaps Jack Cottrell's definition is suitable for our purposes. "Prayer is talking to God." However, I think Cottrell's simple definition does not take into consideration the days and hours some Bible characters spent in prayer. If prayer is only "talking to God" then I don't understand how anyone could "talk to God" all night long or "talk to God" without ceasing.

Prayer is a very personal activity and perhaps each one of us has to develop our own definition of what is involved when we pray.

2. WHAT IS IT THAT MOTIVATES US TO PRAY?

Now I think the answer to this question is somewhat easier than the first. A person is motivated to talk to God for either one, or hopefully both of two reasons. 1) We pray to God because of what He has done or because of what He has allowed to happen. This kind of prayer is to praise God or to thank God. (I'll have more to say about this below.) When good things happen we are motivated to turn to God and praise Him or thank Him for His kindness.

The second motivation for prayer, and by far the most common, is that we hope to influence what God will do or will allow to happen or to influence what God will prevent from happening. These kinds of prayers fall into the categories of prayers of petition and prayers of complaint. (More about this below.)

3. WHAT ARE THE TOPICS THAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN OUR PRAYERS? In my study of this question I came across list after list of the things that should be included in our prayers. I have concluded that all of these things can be grouped together in one of four groups of things to include in our prayers.

1) Praise. When we pay tribute to God we ought to express that praise in two directions: First directly to God; and secondly, we ought to praise God to others like we might recommend a good auto mechanic to someone. When we direct our praise to God this is prayer.

In Psalm 145:1-3 David prayed, "I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom."

2) The second category of things to be included in our prayers is THANKSGIVING. While praise recognizes the greatness and goodness of God, thanksgiving concentrates on expressing gratitude for what God has done, for what He has allowed to happen, and for what God has prevented from happening. If a person loves the Lord Jesus and is doing his best to live within the will of God, then he ought to be constantly giving thanks to God for what God is doing for him in his life.

3. The third category of prayer is PETITION. Petition is simply asking God for something. We can ask God for anything. Whether we receive it or not is another question, but we can ask. We ask God for daily bread, health, wealth, forgiveness of sins, solutions to problems, wisdom, and opportunities to witness our faith to unbelievers. The list of petitions is endless.

4. The 4th category may sound strange, but I've labeled it COMPLAINT or QUESTIONING. It is what we might classify "wrestling with God". This is what Job did.

 

Job (7:11-20) said, "Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard? When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning. What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning and test him every moment? Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more."

I have an idea that if the truth were known about most of us we spend a lot of time complaining and wrestling with God.

So these are the four categories of prayer: PRAISE, THANKSGIVING, PETITION, and COMPLAINT.

4. The fourth question I posed is WHAT ARE THE ASSUMPTIONS WE MAKE ABOUT GOD BEFORE WE PRAY?

Very briefly, we assume at least three things about God before we pray: 1) that He hears our prayers; 2) that He has the power to respond to our prayers; and 3) that God is good and will respond in a way in which our best interests will be served. Without these assumptions, or beliefs, there is no reason to pray.

5. DOES GOD ANSWER PRAYER?
Yes, God answers prayer. This does not necessarily mean that we will receive what we ask of God, but He does answer every prayer. The answers are "yes" and "no". It is easy to get an answer when you asked God for something. The difficulty is getting what you want God to do for you!

And let's face it, most of our prayers are for God to do something for us that we can't or won't do for ourselves. I have yet to hear about a "prayer chain" where the subject was thanksgiving, or a "prayer clinic" where the object was only praise. I have yet to hear someone say, "If I pray in faith, God will accept my words of gratitude." Or, "If I can get someone to join with me maybe God will be pleased with my praise."

Ninety-nine percent of the time we pray because we want something from God or we want to complain. We pray a lot about illnesses to be healed and problems to be solved. And does God answer those prayers? Yes. He answers them with "yes" or "no".

6 So the answer to this last question is probably the one in which we are most interested. HOW CAN WE INCREASE THE POSSIBILITY OF GETTING THAT FOR WHICH WE PRAY?
There are pre-requisites for successful prayer and it makes no difference what the subject of your prayer is about: praise, thanksgiving, petition, or complaint. I believe there are many words of praise that don't get any higher than the distance the volume control on the amplifier shoots them.

The New Testament contains six, or perhaps seven, pre-requisites to one receiving that for which one prays; to get a "yes" out of God.

1) WE MUST PRAY IN THE NAME OF JESUS. In John 16:23 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." When I pray I address my prayer to the Father and always end the prayer "in the name of Jesus" because Jesus makes intercession for us with the Father. (Hebrews 7:25)

2) WE MUST PRAY BELIEVING In Mark 11:24 Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Many make "faith" the only pre-requisite for receiving that for which you pray. But this is not all the Bible has to say about receiving that for which we pray.

3) WE MUST PRAY IN HUMILITY In Luke 18: 9-14 Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray and told a parable of two men who went to the Temple to pray.

The first man was a Pharisee, one of the religious leaders who walked about dressed in lavish robes. Jesus said the Pharisee "prayed about himself" and boasted to God of his goodness and fasting and tithing. He even prayed, "I thank you that I am not like other men."  The second man was a publican, a tax collector, one of those people who was known as a cheat and a thief. But the publican humbly prayed, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."  Then Jesus said, "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:14)

4) WE MUST BE PERSISTENT. In Luke 11: 5-8, after teaching the disciples the "Lord's Prayer", Jesus told a parable to illustrate persistence in prayer.

A man went to his friend's house at midnight and asked the man to get out of bed and give him some bread. The man in the house did not want to get up but, Jesus said; "Yet because of the man's persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs." There is nothing wrong with asking God for the same thing over and over and over. Who knows, maybe God will give you what you want.

5) NOW SOME BELIEVE THAT GOD IS IMPRESSED WITH THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE PRAYING FOR THE SAME THING and cite Matthew 18:19 as the proof text. "I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Many people believe "if we agree in prayer" (not a quote from the Bible) God will give us what we want.

In the context of this passage Jesus is not talking about prayer. He is talking about what a person is to do when a brother or sister in Christ offends him. Jesus said the offended is to go to the offender privately. If the matter is not resolved, then at the second confrontation two or three witnesses are taken along to confirm what is said. And if the issue is still not resolved, the problem is taken before the church (most likely the leaders of the church). If the issue still remains unresolved, the church may "agree" to treat the unrepentant offender as "a pagan".

I am not going to argue this point except to say two things: First, the word prayer is not mentioned in this passage; and secondly, in the context, Jesus is not talking about prayer but about resolving problems within the church.

6. A RIGHTEOUS LIFE WILL AID US IN GETTING THAT FOR WHICH WE PRAY. James said, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." (James 5: 16b) The apostle Peter said pretty much the same thing except he used a specific example. "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers. (1 Pet. 3: 7)

If you want God to give you what you want and if you want to be powerful and effective in prayer, you must live a righteous life. You must increase your faith in Christ (our righteousness comes only by faith, not by being good - see chapter 9 - Salvation) which will result in a life more like Christ's. When Willie Shoemaker and his wife, Babs, were dating they discovered that she was allergic to horses. In order to be with Babs, Willie had to scrub himself clean before he left the track and then when he got home he had to shower again. Only then could he approach his Babs.

In effect Peter said, we've got to increase our faith in Christ which will result in a life more like Christ's and then we expect that our chances will be better that God will give us that for which we are praying.

7. The last thing that will help us get that for which we are praying is no doubt the most important pre-requisite. In fact, I believe this is more important than any thing else we can do. WE MUST PRAY IN THE WILL OF GOD. This instruction is given in 1 John 5:14-15. "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." (I underscored "according to his will".)

Imagine the conflicting requests God must hear: husbands praying one thing and wives for something else; parents praying for one thing and their children asking for the exact opposite.

This conflict is like the preacher's son who was camping in the woods, which were filled with all sorts of wild animals, and he strayed away from the campfire. Suddenly he met a big, powerful bear. Seeing no way to escape the preacher's son did what he had been taught to do. He knelt and prayed for deliverance.

He closed his eyes tightly and after a few moments he opened them to see the bear also kneeling and praying. The boy said, "God has answered my prayer. I was afraid the bear was going to eat me alive and now I see that he is a Christian, too. He's praying."
And the bear looked over at the boy and growled quietly, "Boy, I don't know what you were praying for, but I'm saying grace."

Even if the first six pre-requisites are met, God still decides what is best and we can be sure God will not do anything against His will and that God will do what is our best and everlasting interests. I believe that if I have met all the other pre-requites for receiving what I pray for and have not gotten a "Yes" from God, I can still thank God because He is doing what is in His will and in my best interests.

And I need to say one more thing about prayer that I dare not leave out. When you don't know how to pray or what to pray for, remember that as a Christian you have this great promise from Romans 8: 26-27. "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."

What we have here is this promise about prayer: When we do not know what we should be praying for the Holy Spirit knows perfectly both what is in our hearts and what the will of God is. And the Holy Spirit will express, with exactly the right words, our praise and thanksgiving and petitions and complaints to our Father who is in heaven and who loves every one of us. And our Father, who loves each one of us, will do exactly what is in our best interests.

 

 

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